Heroic actor of the week (5/24): Legends’ Caity Lotz, Stargirl’s Luke Wilson

Caity Lotz’s terrific William Shatner impersonation is Legendary and Luke Wilson’s turn in Stargirl is show-stealing.

It’s been an interesting week in the world of costumed vigilantes and comic book adaptations. With so many of our Arrowverse stalwarts having bowed out for the remainder of the year (until their returns in January 2021), the spotlight fell firmly on the last one standing in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

Meanwhile, DC Universe/CW collaboration Stargirl returned for its second adventure and the season 7 premiere of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD marked the beginning of the end for the long-standing show. And DC Universe’s animated Harley Quinn was both ridiculous and surprisingly thought-provoking.

The shows were few, but the impressive performances were plentiful – and with that, it wasn’t exactly easy to pick the best performers this week. However, two stood out for very different reasons.

Caity Lotz – DC’s Legends of Tomorrow

It’s no secret that Caity Lotz is one of the Arrowverse’s greatest performers. She’s given us serious during her recurring stints on Arrow and mixed that up with comedy to lead spin-off Legends of Tomorrow in a ridiculously fun manner that few others could pull off. Yes, Sara Lance/White Canary/The Canary is one of the most layered characters on TV today, but Lotz’s show-stealing turn this week had very little to do with that.

Excitement for Legends‘ penultimate episode was high ever since we saw that trailer a few weeks back, but not even the abundance of comedic snippets could have prepared us for “The One Where We’re Trapped On TV”.

As we looked at in-depth in our review of the episode, all the parodies of Friends, Downton Abbey and Star Trek were wonderful. But it was the latter that stood out the most, and the reason for that was Lotz’s impeccable ability to channel William Shatner’s iconic Captain Kirk.

“We’re taking over this ship,” she said, dressed like Kirk, weapon in hand and pointed with determination, delivering the lines with the exact same kind of conviction that Shatner did back in the ’60s, in spite of the fact that she was in the most ridiculous of environments that the former fantasy show could have ever dreamed of finding itself in. And as hilarious as the situation was, Lotz’s enunciated, animated delivery of it was completely plausible and highly commendable.

Captain Kirk would be proud.. and so are we!